Arqiva, the international satellite and media services provider, has today announced an upgrade of its five-year contract with France 24 to incorporate the launch of a new high definition (HD) channel in the UK.

France 24, an international rolling news channel broadcast in French, English, Arabic and Spanish to 355 million households around the world, has been available to UK audiences in standard definition (SD) in the UK since 2012. The announcement means that UK customers of Sky and Freesat can access its breaking news coverage in HD with immediate effect.

Arqiva will provide its satellite services to deliver the France 24 service to Sky and Freesat through its media facility in Paris. Using state-of-the-art encoding, Arqiva is also helping France 24 optimise the use of satellite capacity for HD delivery.

Alex Pannell, Managing Director, Satellite & Media at Arqiva, said:
“The most satisfying wins are undoubtedly those that result from a long-standing, successful relationship with a partner – we are delighted that we can help France 24 with the next phase of its growth.

“Arqiva prides itself on delivering high quality services that are flexible to the specific needs of our customers, and as France 24 reaches more and more audiences in the coming years, we look forward to evolving our proposition with them.”

David Couret, Director of Technical Distributions at France 24 added:
“The launch of France 24 HD represents an important step in our journey to bring instant, high quality news and events coverage to UK viewers, and it is crucial to have a trusted partner like Arqiva working alongside us on this project.

“Arqiva helped us launch our first UK SD channel back in 2012, and its reliable service and technical expertise has been critical in helping us to grow in this essential market.”